“Hold out your hand.” Prisoner instructed, and Elach complied. Prisoner pulled out a jar of ink and dipped his finger in, tracing an X on Elach’s palm. “Focus on the X. Imagine that it won’t move, even if you take your hand away. Then, without closin’ your eyes,” Prisoner put extra emphasis on that part, “pull on some of that Issi in your container and let it do its thing. Don’t focus on manipulatin’ it. That’s where your focuses come in later. The basics are letting your Issi do its own thing and usin’ what it gives you.”

Focusing on the Issi in his container, Elach blinked and purposefully held his eyes closed for longer than necessary. When he opened his eyes Prisoner rolled his own, crossed his arms and sighed theatrically. Elach smirked and pulled on the space that was no longer quite as empty, something now spilling from the void that he latched onto and let pool in his hand for a second before stopping the flow. It felt intangible, like it didn’t truly exist but still held a form in this world.

“Done.” Elach said, the ink hovering in place as he moved his hand away. “What now?”

“See? easy.” Prisoner chuckled, looking at the ink that had curled itself into the shape of a flower. “You should be able to see it perfectly, no? Can you tell me exactly what you see? Spare no detail.”

“It’s a lotus flower, cut just where the stem meets the head. It’s completely see-through, but I know it’s there and I can make it out. And not just because of the ink.” Elach added, and Prisoner nodded. “Is that good?”

Prisoner shrugged. “No clue. Your wisp was a lotus flower before it manifested, so that explains the shape. And the intangible part is perfectly normal for an anchor, it would put us at a huge disadvantage if our powers were completely visible to our enemies. But you can make it visible if you want. Misdirect someone you’re fightin’, or give your allies a beacon in the dark.”

Prisoner manifested the purple and silver stone in his hand again, then another between him and Elach. And then another ten feet away, and then a monstrously huge one near where Elach had come in. “They’re all useless on their own, of course, but tell me you wouldn’t soil yourself if that suddenly appeared in front of you in the heat of battle.”

“Maybe not soil myself, but I’d be pretty damn surprised.” Elach admitted.

“Damn right you would.” Prisoner said as he dispelled all of his stones. “Now try doing exactly what you just did, but manifest it between us. Then we can get to the good stuff.”

Elach focused on the space between him and Prisoner and tried to coax his Issi into it. It left him, but it did not stop. It flowed out of him like a raging river, trying to fill the four foot by six foot space Elach had visualized as between him and Prisoner. He instantly realized his mistake, and concentrated his Issi into a much smaller space; a cube that could easily fit Flow’s flower before everything changed. It popped into view, a transparent outline of a lotus flower spinning lazily in place.

“Got it.” Elach said.

“You learn fast.” Prisoner laughed. “Not as fast as I did, but still. Now you need to learn what you can do with your anchors. I can move things between mine and use them as portals to bring things in and out of my headspace.” Prisoner created a concentrated sphere of Issi on his fingertip and two purple and blackened silver crystals, pushing the ball into one crystal. The ball fell out of the second one and bounced twice before detonating in a raging sphere of whirling power, blasting a hole in the carpet that fixed itself before Elach could make a comment.

“You wouldn’t believe how many different ways I can use just those two functions.” Prisoner said, dismissing his crystals. “And now it’s trial and error for you. Throw out a bunch of ideas and see what sticks. Once you’re good and certain about what your Issi and anchors let you do, I’ll show you how to use that existential bleed and get you started on your first focus.”

Leaving Elach to his own devices, Prisoner walked over to the other side of the clearing and started working on something with his back turned. Elach tried doing what Prisoner had, creating a second anchor and pushing a piece of bark into it while willing them to connect. All he found out was that having two anchors out took way more out of him than a single one, and when he brought out a third he was met with a stabbing pain in his gut informing him that he didn’t have enough Issi to do that. And that if he continued, terrible things would happen. So he went back down to one, repurposing the Issi from his second anchor to keep testing out other things.

With a mental shove, Elach felt a stirring in the world around his anchor. But it wasn’t powerful enough to do anything. So he put his hand on the anchor, walked a little bit closer so that his elbow was bent at a ninety degree angle, and shoved. The anchor didn’t move. But he was now about thirty feet back, standing in the exact same pose as he’d been when he was touching the anchor. He blinked twice in surprise and reached out with his now outstretched hand, making a grasping motion as if pulling himself to the anchor.

He was now standing right before the anchor. Elach smiled and let out an excited laugh, dispelling his anchor and creating another one at the other side of the clearing. He pulled himself to that anchor, the world rushing to meet him as if it was the one moving, and not him. Then he dispelled that one and created a new anchor in the middle of the air, pulling himself up towards that one. He shot past it and hovered in the air as he gripped the anchor in his hand, Issi draining from him as he strained to keep the connection alive. He created another anchor on the ground and dispelled the one he’d been clinging to, pushing slightly off the one on the ground and producing the same effect. As his tiny reserves alerted him to their imminent emptiness he pulled himself to the earthbound anchor and the ground rushed up to meet him, his feet landing without so much as an impact to jar his bones.

This wasn’t him pushing or pulling, he realized. The space around him was shifting. It was the thing being pushed or pulled, his location sliding to fit his desired position. He wanted to test his newfound abilities out some more, but a pain reminding him of his emptied Issi reserves put a stop to that. Ideas swirled about in his head, like what would happen if he tried to push something else with his anchor, or if he brought out two at once and pushed in two different directions. Would it do exactly what Prisoner had described earlier? Rip apart whatever was caught in the middle? And could he hold himself up in the air if he had more Issi? Probably not, but what if he concentrated the push just a little bit above the anchor? Could he create a little platform to stand on?

“I think I’m done for today.” Elach called over to Prisoner, dispelling his last anchor. “My tanks are empty.”

“I saw you zipping around there. Got a good handle on the basics?” Prisoner asked.

“Yup. Is it supposed to be this easy?” Elach asked, resisting the urge to pull out another anchor and try standing on it. “I’m pretty sure I heard kids talking about how they had to train for a year to get control over their Issi.”

“That’s because they’re tryin’ to control it.” Prisoner said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “They’re forcin’ their Issi to do somethin’ it don’t want to do, or put it in a shape it don’t want to be. They ain’t controlling their Issi, they’re eroding away their wisp until it’s a shapeless blob that don’t give their Issi any individuality. That’s why it’s so hard for them; their wisp ain’t helping them out at all. They lobotomized it so they can be exactly what their teachers or masters or whatever want them to be.”

Elach didn’t know what to say. Prisoner’s words carried no malice, but he felt they should have. “That sucks.”

“It’s how it goes.” Prisoner shrugged. “If you don’t like it, do something about it. But don’t get caught.” He rattled the invisible shackles on his wrists for emphasis. “You can’t make change from the inside of a cell. I don’t even know if my cause died out a long time ago or if it’s still going strong. I try not to think about it. Don’t need more sleepless nights.”

“Thanks for the tip.” Elach said, leaning over Prisoner to try and get a look at what he was doing. But whatever he was working on disappeared before Elach could get a good look, and Prisoner stood up quickly as he rubbed his hands on his shirt.

“Let’s get you juiced up now, shall we?” Prisoner said, producing the bottle of existential bleed and tossing it from one hand to the other before offering it to Elach. “The first thing you need to do is get that into your headspace. Give half of it to Flow then come back here and drink the other half yourself. It’ll do some nasty stuff to you for two weeks, give or take, but then you’ll be good to go.”

“Two weeks?” Elach asked, looking down at the bottle. It roiled in his hand, and now that his Issi had somewhat settled he could feel the absurd power coming off of it even through the bottle. It must have been warded, since the stump itself gave off a presence that was now almost too much to handle. “I can live with that.”

“Good. Now get going! Your little bird needs a head start on you.” Prisoner said, pushing Elach back into the chair he’d sat in earlier. “You can close your eyes for this one. I won’t be too disappointed.”